I hate to say it, but after starting several games as the normal difficulty level, I'm shelving this puppy for a couple of reasons, both of which are game-breakers for me:

1) Wacky A.I.: In one game I DOW'ed my neighbor, and captured one of the small villages in her territory. The A.I. immediately sent the ENTIRE GARRISON FROM THE CAPITOL out to retake it, allowing me to CAPTURE THE CAPITOL WITH A SINGLE, UNSUPPORTED GENERAL. That's right, my lone General was able to capture the capitol with no resistance. In my next game, early on, my territory was invaded by an army of Crusaders. I thought this was getting interesting. After barely taking one of my villages, with it's army barely surviving, rather than let the army rest in the village and recover, the A.I. took what remained of the army and marched on my capitol city. Needless to say the army was routed, and I was able to once again retake the village with a single, unescorted general.

2) Diplomacy that makes the TW series look like, well, a great diplomat. Time after time the A.I. would come to me with a offer of alliance, but than refuse to accept it. Or, when I could finally get an alliance, that country would attack for no apparent reason. Every nation in the world is expanding all over the place, but as soon as you take your first neutral village they all hate you.

I don't disagree with either of these complaints, but I am willing to give them a patch to address these and maybe a few other things. The reason I am willing to give them a little time is that I think they have put together a fine structure here. Neither of these issues are particularly difficult to fix (in the sense that they are behavioral rather than systemic. If this development group shows themselves to be responsive to complaints with reasonably responsive patches, I am willing to stick with them because they have the makings of a fine game here. If not then I will join you ultimately.

I have shelved this game for awhile until a patch comes out. It has potential, that's for sure. It's one of the most beautifully rendered games and is of an interesting era and region, but until the AI is tweaked and the clumsy clickfest everytime you want to move someone and/or troops out of a town is streamlined, I won't be playing this game. It would be nice if the administrators of this forum would at least acknowledge that they intend to patch the game in due time. A simple acknowledgement will keep me in the loop and I would be fairly patient. Meanwhile, I play old games until Civ V comes out in September...

For the european balance of power of that period, I wouldn't doubt that the difficulty of the game is set too hard, for the second AI problem you mentioned I suppose it was just like the history, think of the time last of a 30 year war for example.

I found the selection of these 3D models of commanders to be anoying, and the ctrl selection of troops also unberrable, if you take the game as a lesure activity it certainly is not. But the system of the game is among the best and the most clear ones! If their really isn't any patch I must would pissed^

For the Diplomat part, I've understand it this way: when another monarch sent an ambassador to me, with a proposal they won't accept, like an alience, then I can click it away , and just give them some gold for nothing, that way they are happy and will definitely accept the diplomat and our relationship get better and better, until later, they will offer me allience and also some gold and knowledge for me

2) Diplomacy that makes the TW series look like, well, a great diplomat. Time after time the A.I. would come to me with a offer of alliance, but than refuse to accept it. Or, when I could finally get an alliance, that country would attack for no apparent reason. Every nation in the world is expanding all over the place, but as soon as you take your first neutral village they all hate you.

Too bad. This could have been a contender.

The way I see it, the AI thinks an alliance might be possible, if you pay tribute for 18 seasons and give him a huge amount of gold, knowledge and food. The real question is, does the AI know how much gold and resources the player has? If it does, the AI shouldn't propose deals the player can't make appealing to the AI.

As for your neighbors hating you, you're expanding too fast. Conquer a neutral province, send ambassadors to the offended parties and let them do their work. Their approval of you will improve after some time. Once they're improved enough, conquer another neutral and repeat. Or you can just kick the complainers' teeth in if they annoy you enough.

My allies haven't backstabbed me, so I can't comment on that. You must have been a very bad boy to warrant such an action.